The Pittsburgh Steelers have a long history of success. Much of that is due to the lengthy and impressive tenure of former quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Pittsburgh is hoping that Kenny Pickett can become the next great quarterback for the franchise. However, Roethlisberger revealed that he wasn’t all that eager to see Pickett thrive right away.
The two-time Super Bowl champion had Pickett on the Footbahlin Podcast on Sunday.
He was brutally honest with him, saying that he wasn’t rooting for Pickett to succeed early on in his career.
“I’m gonna be sure transparent about this. I’m gonna get blasted, I probably shouldn’t say this,” said Roethlisberger. “I wouldn’t say that I wanted Kenny (Pickett) to necessarily fail. But I hoped that he didn’t come and ball out.”
Roethlisberger later added that this feeling didn’t last all that long and that he eventually found himself “rooting for Pickett more and more.”
“As you started playing I found myself rooting for you more and more. We were high-fiving and going nuts when you were leading the team and doing things. I feel bad and I apologized to you for not knowing how good you were going to be. I’m pleasantly surprised and I’m glad I was wrong.”
It is natural for someone to not want to see their replacement end up being better than you, so Roethlisberger should get a bit of a free pass on this take.
Regardless, it seems pretty clear that Big Ben is now all for the Kenny Pickett era in Pittsburgh after he led them to a 9-8 record last season.
[Footbahlin Podcast on YouTube]
